How many follow professional Bass Fishing?

brandmoney wrote:

I think it’ll be an interesting season this year. They kick off on Big Stone, which should be a shootout.

If I remember correctly there was a bass tournament on Big Stone last May and the winning team weighed in 35 pounds. That was a real eye opener. I had no idea that lake had turned into such a big bass fishery.

It seems like a lot of Walleye lakes are now holding a huge Bass populations. Curious to know if the bag was mostly Smallies.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Curious to know if the bag was mostly Smallies.

It was all largemouth.

Ya that champions Tour on Big Stone will be interesting. The Champions tour is really well run. They do a excellent job. Some real big name fishermen who fish it.

Big Stone has really changed since the 90’s.
Weeds and more weeds these days. Which is great for panfish and large mouth. It never used to have smallmouth either. There were some caught last summer in that lake as well.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>brandmoney wrote:</div>
I think it’ll be an interesting season this year. They kick off on Big Stone, which should be a shootout.

If I remember correctly there was a bass tournament on Big Stone last May and the winning team weighed in 35 pounds. That was a real eye opener. I had no idea that lake had turned into such a big <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass fishery.

It was a little over 30 pounds (not 35) but it was still unreal to see a bag like that of all largemouth. If I remember correctly big fish was around 7 pounds or so

brandmoney wrote:

It was a little over 30 pounds (not 35) but it was still unreal to see a bag like that of all largemouth. If I remember correctly big fish was around 7 pounds or so

I just checked, it was 31.75 pounds in early May. So you’re right I was a little off on the high side. Still quite a ridiculous bag.

The Bassmaster classic starts on Friday. Looking forward to watching some of it.

Should be a good one!

Looking forward to watching as well. Looks like a cold practice and warming up just in time for the start.

Cant wait for tomorrow. Headed to Knoxville for the Classic. One of my bucket list items.

Thanks,
RVRDUX

RVRDUX wrote:

Cant wait for tomorrow. Headed to Knoxville for the Classic. One of my bucket list items.

Thanks,
RVRDUX

That’s way cool. I would love to attend a Bassmaster classic one day. Have Fun !!!!

fishthumper wrote:

I would love to attend a Bassmaster classic one day.

I’ve never been to the Classic but I went one day both years in 2015 and 2016 for the Elite AOY events at Mille Lacs for the weigh in.

Just seeing all the fancy rigs in person was cool. And the most interesting part was when Mercer interviewed each angler and asked them how their day went. Some were just “meh” and some were brutally honest. This was before many of the big names moved to MLF. After the weigh in, we went inside and hit up the seafood buffet!

Course now the Elites don’t even have an AOY Championship event.

Almost go time. Bet there are some guys who will not be getting a lot of sleep tonight. As always there should be some great coverage to watch starting tomorrow morning.

Fishing is a little tough this morning. There has been some real cool coverage of Jeff Gustafson using mega live to dropshot smallmouth. He’s currently in the lead. If his smallmouth bite holds up he’s going to be there at the end. With the SM having a 18″ minimum size those are some nice fish.

I’ve been reading about the conditions. Apparently a significant amount of rain has come through and muddied the waters.

gimruis wrote:

I’ve been reading about the conditions. Apparently a significant amount of rain has come through and muddied the waters.

No to bad today, But some heavier rains on the way. It most likely will be a factor before this one is over. Seth started out hot, but has been stuck on 3 fish for awhile now. Only a few showing with a 5 fish limit so far.

Watching some of the coverage. The announcers said that Taku Ito have 4 different forward facing sonars on his boat. That is just crazy !!!! Its been and will continue to be a major factor this season on the pro level for sure.

fishthumper wrote:

The announcers said that Taku Ito have 4 different forward facing sonars on his boat.

This is getting out of hand. Didn’t a team on the PMTT last year show up with 8 of them in northern Wisconsin and clean house? The directors then banned live sonar for the remainder of the season.

Wisconsin native Jay Przekurat and Minnesota native Austin Felix are both in the top ten today at the Classic.

Way to go Gussey.
I bet Lund never thought they would have a classic winner.

That was one of the stingiest derbies I’ve ever seen.

Great job by Gussy! I don’t know how the guy could hold it together after the day he had yesterday. Tough derby for sure.

Joe Jarl wrote:

Great job by Gussy! I don’t know how the guy could hold it together after the day he had yesterday. Tough derby for sure.

Ya. He had to think he lost it. I would have never thought that two fish would have been enough on the final day to win the classic. It was hard to believe that with all the great smallmouth fishermen he was the only one who figured out how to catch them the way he was. Then again, he is one of the best at it. Nice to see him get the win. He seems like a real nice guy.
Side note. That Matt Robertson is one crazy dude. He sure would be fun to party with.

fishthumper wrote:

It was hard to believe that with all the great smallmouth fishermen he was the only one who figured out how to catch them the way he was.

So apparently any smallmouth caught there has to be at least 18 inches to legally count. I saw Drew Benton catch a massive striper and then a couple of “short” brown bass, but since they were not 18 inches, they did not count.

Correct the slot on the smallies was at least 18″ to be kept.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Correct the slot on the smallies was at least 18″ to be kept.

That is why Gussy was targeting them. He knew if he caught 15 of them he would win. As it turns out he only needed 12 of them. It was fun to watch him count them down from 15 at the start of the tourney.

I’m fairly certain if this tourney was held a week later this would have turned out much different. I believe those deeper SM would not be where they were. This livescope fishing is not really much different than ice fishing with a flasher. Just able to see a larger area from one spot. It was incredible to see the # of fish that would swim up to the bait and not bite it. That must have been really mentally draining for gussy on that last day. I really felt like he needed at least one more fish to win.

To be honest, not a huge fan of watching Classics on stingy bodies of water (Cough Tennessee River in March COUGH spotted bass fisheries)

You can tell the audience wasn’t jazzed to see 4 pounds of fish weighed at a time, and rightfully so.

I feel like it would be best for the growth of the sport for the classic to be on some of the best bodies of water in the nation at peak times. I understand that venues are incredibly important, though, and Knoxville definitely produced as far as attendance went.

Just my two cents

fishthumper wrote:

I really felt like he needed at least one more fish to win.

Yeah everyone did including the tv guys.